Taking advantage of leaving the office early, Zhang Yuze went to the barbershop. Until a while ago, he was always busy with work, so his bangs have grown way past his eyebrows. No wonder he always felt uncomfortable.
The barber asked what kind of hairstyle he wanted, but Zhang Yuze had no idea. He simply pointed to his temples and said: “Just shave it short and refreshing.”
The barber began to work on his masterpiece, cutting hair and also… Talking.
“Hello, handsome! My name is Tom. I’ll be your stylist for today.”
Zhang Yuze raised his eyes and answered with a fake smile: “My name is Jerry and I don’t want to apply for a membership card.”
And so, Tom the Stylist stopped talking, and Jerry Zhang had some rare leisure time. However, on his way home, the cold wind unapologetically blew against his scalp. He didn’t know whether it was to take revenge on Jerry who didn’t want a membership card, but Mr. Tom was particularly fierce this time. He cut all of his hair close to the scalp, leaving only cyan stubble on his temples.
Anyway, Zhang Yuze didn’t care much. His appearance was resistant to both good and bad weather, and no matter how short his hair was, he could stand it. After all, his facial features were those of an angular and tough man, his jawline was smooth and clear, and he never cared about getting trendy hairstyles and whatnot.
On the contrary, shorter hair actually made him look energetic and sharp.
…………
As soon as he got home, Zhang Yuze took off his coat and started his mood-killing, OCD ritual of getting ready for bed. However, after putting his trousers and coat into the washing and drying machine, a message popped up on his mobile phone.
Li Chenghong: Second, do you want to hear something about Shen Mo?
Zhang Yuze raised his eyebrows slightly, wanting to reply with a big fat NO, but his phone didn’t listen to him, vibrating with Li Chenghong’s hurried second message: Shen Mo’s department was suspended for inspection.
… Why go through the effort of asking me if I wanted to hear about it or not in the first place?!
Zhang Yuze didn’t feel like responding. He never replied to those types of messages.
Li Chenghong was his college roommate and the only one in their group who was transferred to the same hospital as Shen Mo after graduation. Perhaps, in order to make Zhang Yuze happy, he would always run to tell him about Shen Mo’s recent situation.
But in fact, he made a grave, beginner’s mistake. Zhang Yuze really, really, wasn’t interested! Not interested in whether Shen Mo was doing well or not and definitely not interested in how his life was going.
Using a simple, bland word, Shen Mo was a passer-by. He didn’t care.
Soon, the dryer let out a piece of music. Zhang Yuze took out his trousers, folded them neatly, and put them in the wardrobe, preparing to read a book before going to bed.
When he arrived at his unit the next day and as soon as the elevator’s doors opened, he saw Zhao Xiaole hugging a fruit pancake. She looked up and saw him, gave a thumbs up, and said with a smile: “Dr. Zhang looks very energetic today! Way to go, you cut your hair and turned the defensive into an attack in an instant!”
Zhang Yuze replied: “However, I was going to attack in the first place…”
It was hard to forget (and ignore) the fact that his transmigrated-into character had a delicate and soft image in the book called “The peerless little doctor forced his scum ex to repent and walk through the Crematorium” (the title was really fu**-ing long!). He belonged to the kind of pure character with slanted shoulders, petite, white-skinned, and as cute as a rabbit. One only had to say a few bad words to push him into earth-shattering cries accompanied by hiccups and burps…
… But Zhang Yuze was not like that. He was a fierce top. Such a fake replacement!
Walking into the office, Xu Li was already wearing his white coat, preparing himself for a new workday. When he saw Zhang Yuze coming in, he scanned around his head with sarcastic eyes: “I was wondering why you didn’t come to my house yesterday to block me. It turned out you went to the barbershop.”
Zhang Yuze was the type who would never swallow a loss, so he quickly replied: “Your house is not a barbershop. The next time I want to cut my hair, should I come to your house? Are you sick?”
Therefore, the daily must-have swearing program went online again in the early morning. Zhang Yuze and Xu Li scolded each other passionately, with every nasty word echoing in the corridor for a long time.
In the end, Xu Li stared at him in resignation and said: “You know how to scold me so hard and you also know how to fight so fiercely! Zhang Yuze, you’re so wild! What kind of little white flower did you pretend to be before?!”
“I’m not pretending to be anything, I just had enough of you.” Zhang Yuze replied.
However, in the following days, Xu Li obviously did not believe that Zhang Yuze really gave up like that. After all, the little poor flower from the original book pestered him for more than half a year, always trying to emphasize the supremacy of true love in front of Xu Li every day, which was really annoying.
So Xu Li still liked to say a word or two to Dr. Zhang when he had nothing better to do.
As for Zhang Yuze, he was not willing to lag behind, giving it back to him twofold. And so, the two began to quarrel with each other every day, from the moment they sat down at their desks, all the way to the moment they came home from work.
If it weren’t for professional ethics, they might have gone as far as picking up their scalpels and stabbing each other to death during an operation.
Zhang Yuze felt that it was not good, since he was starting to get tired of it. Just because of Xu Li, he now scolded more in a day than he did in a year before picking up that god-forsaken book! In an effort to give himself a swift end, he especially found the dean and asked for a new assistant.
However, the old dean first spilled out a bunch of nasty, metaphorical blood clots.
“Both of you are good comrades. You should join hands to contribute to the hospital and add a layer of safety for the patients. Doctors are kind. Our work is not only a cold scalpel, but also a warm heart…”
Zhang Yuze raised his hand and interrupted him: “Can you change him?”
The dean smiled and said: “No. Xu Li is the best surgical assistant, experienced, and has also been working with you for a while.”
Zhang Yuze left with a fake smile.
There was no way but to live together.
During that period of working with Xu Li, Dr. Zhang got tired of two things: “stupid” and “Are you sick?!” However, everyone had inertia, so they both soon got used to the scolding. Even before an operation, the two of them still had to say a few words to each other while waiting for the anesthesia to kick in, otherwise, they would not be comfortable.
And as a result, the next day, both of them received a complaint that the patient heard swear words in the operating room before going under. For a moment, that poor man thought he was lying in the vegetable market while listening to people’s scolding. He felt that his life-saving operation was delayed, so he (obviously) reported it.
Time quickly flew and Zhang Yuze gradually integrated into his new life of kinda transmigrating into a book. He would now go to lunch with Zhao Xiaole every day, and she would pull him all over the world in the quest to grab chicken legs. When he came back, he would scold Xu Li.
To some extent, it was a very regular life.
Especially in terms of work, Zhang Yuze and Xu Li had more and more tacit cooperation. The dean really didn’t lie to him. Although Xu Li was not good at being a proper man, his skills were real.
Although the operating room was abusive, the assistant services provided to Zhang Yuze were meticulous. Therefore, he did not mention the matter of changing partners again. Dr. Zhang continued to live his peaceful life.
As for Xu Li, he was still the same. After work, he ran to some bar or nightclub, picking up different little boys every day. Zhang Yuze felt a sharp pain in his kidney just looking at it.
“If human beings went extinct one day, you might still be able to reproduce in the end, Mr. Stallion.” Zhang Yuze satirized him.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, little bottom.” Xu Li returned to him.
“I’m a top, get out of here!” Zhang Yuze scolded.
Time came to the end of December in a blink of an eye. After all, winter was the season of high incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, so Zhang Yuze was particularly and perpetually busy.
One morning, the wind was gentle and the sun was beautiful. Zhang Yuze and Zhao Xiaole came back from lunch, only to hear Xu Li’s voice from afar, sounding quite angry.
“If he dies, he dies! Why the hell did you come to me?! Don’t think about me saving him, I don’t even want to see him!”
Zhang Yuze walked slowly to his office. He didn’t want to touch someone else’s festering wound, but he had the habit of brushing his teeth in the afternoon, so he was in dire need of going back and grabbing his toothbrush.
Hanging around the door of his office, he saw a white-haired woman standing in the corner, crying and reaching out to pull Xu Li’s hand, only to be gently pushed away by the other party.
The woman pleaded: “I beg you, he’s your father!”
Xu Li was still angry and didn’t see Zhang Yuze. He sneered and said: “My father?! Why wasn’t he a father when he left us just before the college entrance examination? Now that he’s old, he remembers he has a son when he’s sick?!”
The poor women could only cry.
“If there’s something wrong, tell him to come to the hospital and register by himself. If he doesn’t want to, just let him die. Anyway, I don’t care.” Xu Li saw the woman’s cowardly appearance, hating that he couldn’t shove some common sense into her head. “Don’t cry here, it makes me upset to see you like this. You have cared for that man for more than twenty years. Isn’t that stupid? Do you think he worried about you when he left? How cheap does he think we are?”
In the end, the woman didn’t say anything to him, leaving with red eyes.
Zhang Yuze judged that she should be Xu Li’s mother, and also sorted out the matter. Waiting until he estimated Xu Li’s quarrel to be over, he walked into the office to grab his toothbrush.
Brushing your teeth after meals was a good habit worth sticking to…
… And because Xu Li was angry, he didn’t want to stick around only to get into trouble, planning to leave the office as soon as possible. But who would have thought that Xu Li would suddenly stop him and sneer: “Why are there so many fools like you in this world?! They believe in love one by one… Isn’t it better to just go and eat shit?”
Zhang Yuze was stunned and subconsciously retorted: “You’re not right in the head…”
He just wanted to explain that he also didn’t believe in love, but Xu Li immediately interrupted him. Maybe he was afraid that Zhang Yuze’s Virgin Heart would break out into shivers, persuading him to treat his father kindly, so Xu Li said rudely: “Don’t look at me, you fool!”
“What’s wrong with you?! It’s none of my business!” Zhang Yuze blurted out.
Xu Li was full of a big nasty air that he needed to vent, but at the same time, he was also very excited by Zhang Yuze’s beatable face, so he rushed over decisively with the intention of fighting.
As for Zhang Yuze, he was also very annoyed. It was really troublesome to stumble over the embarrassing things of others, fearing that he might be misunderstood as nosy. In the end, it was just a case of being unable to get used to Xu Li’s bad habits. And so, he pulled Xu Li’s collar and threw him on the desk.
The two of them proceeded to punch each other like they were sandbags. In the Cardiac Surgery department, the world was shocked, and the whole corridor was full of screams. Xu Li pressed Zhang Yuze on the inspection bed, and Zhang Yuze pinched Xu Li’s neck with his backhand, smashing it against the wall.
The iron metal cabinets in the room collapsed under the continuous shaking, making a loud noise.
When Zhao Xiaole came over with the dean and the others in the department, Zhang Yuze was already riding on top of Xu Li, smashing his head in. Xu Li’s hand was also around his neck, and Zhang Yuze’s face was already red and blue.
Zhao Xiaole screamed: “If you want to fight, just go rent a boxing ring!”
Zhang Yuze ignored her, gasped, and stared at Xu Li, warning him: “Let go!”
Xu Li gritted his teeth and said: “Get off me first!”
Zhang Yuze: “I’ll count three, two, and one!”
Xu Li: “Okay!”
“Three, two, one!”
No one let go. Obviously. They had zero trust in each other. Both of them were thousand years old foxes, playing fetch with each other.
Xu Li sneered: “You fu**-ing fouled!”
Zhang Yuze said viciously: “And you’re a stupid thing who doesn’t follow the rules!”
And so, a new round of fighting began. Finally, their 60-year-old dean, with his white hair and trembling hands separated the two, otherwise the entire department would have been razed to the ground.
Zhang Yuze hissed and touched his neck. Obviously, he was choked by Xu Li, in great pain. And looking at Xu Li, he didn’t look that good either. The corners of his mouth were swollen, and there was a strong hatred in his eyes.
Zhang Yuze scolded in his heart: Where the hell did this psychotic scum top come from?!
In the afternoon, the dean immediately found Zhang Yuze and told him: “I’m sorry, Xiao Zhang. I didn’t expect the conflict between you to be so serious. It happens that there’s a new internship assistant in the building. Let’s transfer him to you first. Next month, we’ll see if there’s someone suitable to replace Assistant Xu.”
Zhang Yuze snorted coldly: “It would have been better if that happened earlier.”
Back in his office, the position opposite Zhang Yuze was now empty, and he could no longer see Xu Li. Zhao Xiaole came in with iodine to disinfect his wounds, saying: ” Assistant Xu temporarily changed his office. The dean asked him to work on the 17th floor first.”
The office on the west side of the 17th floor also belonged to the Cardiac Department but from another working group.
Zhang Yuze tidied up the folds of his clothes, only to find out that three of his shirt’s buttons had been torn off by Xu Li’s claws. At the same time, his clothes were untidy, and he didn’t even look like himself.
Zhao Xiaole sighed and said: “Dr. Zhang, even if you don’t like Assistant Xu, you two don’t have to make trouble like this. Stay on the front line and try to see each other in the future.”
Zhang Yuze smiled and answered: “I’d better never see that fool again.”
Zhao Xiaole sighed again and continued: “I don’t believe it. You can’t find a surgical assistant like Xu Li even if you search with a lantern. Changing the assistant is simply your loss.”
Zhang Yuze no longer wanted to talk to her. Xu Li’s work abilities were indeed good, but no matter how good he was, Zhang Yuze was naturally incompatible with such a nasty, scum man, so it was better if the two of them never worked together again.
